1. Field
The present invention relates generally to data communication, and more particularly to techniques for performing frequency tracking of a received signal instance based on diversity transmitted pilots in a wireless (e.g., CDMA) communication system.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication including voice and packet data services. These systems may be based on code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), or some other multiple access technique. CDMA systems may provide certain advantages over other types of system, including increased system capacity. A CDMA system is typically designed to conform to one or more standards, such as IS-95, cdma2000, and W-CDMA standards, all of which are known in the art and incorporated herein by reference.
In a CDMA system, a pilot is often transmitted from a transmitter unit (e.g., a base station) to a receiver unit (e.g., a terminal) to assist the receiver unit perform a number of functions. The pilot may be used at the receiver unit for synchronization with the timing and frequency of the transmitter unit, estimation of the quality of the communication channel, coherent demodulation of a data transmission, and possibly other functions. The pilot is typically generated based on a known symbol pattern (e.g., a sequence of all A-valued symbols) and using a known signal processing scheme (e.g., channelize with a particular channelization code and scrambled with a known scrambling sequence).
The W-CDMA standard supports downlink data transmission from a base station via one or two antennas. Transmit diversity (i.e., data transmission via two antennas) may be used to combat deleterious path effects such as fading and multipath. In a “space time block coding transmit antenna diversity” (STTD) mode supported by the W-CDMA standard, two pilots generated based on two different pilot symbol patterns may be transmitted from two base station antennas.
At the terminal, a rake receiver is often used to recover the transmitted pilot and other traffics. The signal transmitted from each base station antenna may be received via multiple signal paths at the terminal, and each signal instance (or multipath) in the received signal of sufficient strength may be assigned to, and processed by, a respective finger processor of the rake receiver. If transmit diversity is used at the base station, each assigned multipath includes a signal component for each transmitted signal, with each signal component having an amplitude and phase determined by, and indicative of, the channel response between the base station antenna and the terminal for the multipath. Each finger processor processes the assigned multipath in a manner complementary to that performed at the base station to recover the data and pilot received via this multipath. The pilot is typically used for coherent demodulation of various traffics transmitted along with the pilot, which are similarly distorted by the channel response.
The recovered pilot is also typically used by a frequency tracking loop to estimate and correct the frequency error in the downconversion of the multipath from radio frequency to baseband. This frequency error may be estimated based on the amount of phase rotation in the recovered pilot. For the transmit diversity mode in W-CDMA, two pilots are transmitted concurrently from two base station antennas, and the pilot from each base station antenna is typically degraded by channel noise and further independently distorted by fading and multipath in the communication channel. These various phenomena make it challenging to estimate the frequency error based on the diversity transmitted pilots recovered by the terminal. The ability to track out the frequency error affects the performance of the demodulation process, which may in turn affect the performance of the communication system.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to effectively perform frequency tracking of a received signal instance based on diversity transmitted pilots in a CDMA communication system.